To electrify or not electrify: How one CT county is innovating on old school bus infrastructure

HAMDEN, Conn. — Diesel school buses are a slowly dying breed. All over the United States, school districts are replacing the legacy school bus with a more energy-efficient alternative: the electric school bus.

The electric school bus is a rising trend, although it is still in its infancy. Less than 1% of the United States’ 480,000 school buses are electrified, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), a research non-profit organization working to provide data and insights into global social issues.

WRI started its own electric school bus campaign in 2021 to trigger some traction in the industry, Senior Manager of Communications & Engagement for the Electric School Bus Initiative Katherine Roboff told the New Haven Herald.

"We're currently slated to be a five-year initiative focusing on creating and enabling the environment such that electric school buses can really become the norm," Roboff said.

New Haven county is already watching a few electric buses roll through its school districts. There will be 43 electric school busses given throughout the state to school districts in Ansonia, Bethel, Griswold, Hamden, Middletown, New Britain and Stamford.

Jody Goeler, superintendent for the Hamden school district, said Hamden is slated to receive its first electric school bus next year.

"Chief operating finance officer Tom Areola is very much in line with that thinking and has a good relationship with First Student, our current bus transportation provider," Goeler said. "When this opportunity came up and we found that we could afford it, we said 'get us as many as we can and let's make that work.'"

It is all about the health and community impact for Goeler, who said he rode on one in the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, adding it was 'transformative.'

"When you have a quiet, clean environment for students, it tends to impact the behavior of students," Goeler said. "If you get picked up by a bus that is quiet, you come to school with a better sense of what the day is going to be like, and that has an impact on how students arrive to school and how they arrive home."

The difficulty in the process of securing an electric school bus however is in the financing, Goeler said, who notes there is still plenty of logistics to sort out.

"In terms of public policy, we all need to be on the same page to ensure there are opportunities for the districts," he said, "whether they are grants or subsidizing electric companies to give them equal footing to current manufacturers of diesel and other manufacturers."

Michelle Levinson, the manager of eMobility Financial Solutions at the U.S. Energy Program, said school districts have traditionally obtained access to electric bus financing through public grants. But, that's not the only option.

For instance, when the Montgomery County Public school district in Bethesda, Maryland decided to convert their entire school bus fleet — over 300 school buses — in early February 2021, they used private finance intermediaries to secure funding.

At the end of the day, clean electric school buses are a public service, Goeler explained, for both the community and the kids who ride them daily.

"It's an important direction for us to be pursuing," he said. "With better with cheaper alternatives and cleaner alternatives, we have a better opportunity to take people out of their own individual cars and then provide those public transportation opportunities, which helps everybody as well."

Additional reporting and podcast made by Jess Simms